Photo of the Day

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December 3, 2009

Automat, New York City

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Patrons line up "like payday depositors" in a bank, waiting to drop a few nickels in a slot for favorites like baked beans and Salisbury steak, freshly made each day and kept in "post-officelike boxes." This New York City Automat, described in the March 1942 National Geographic, was part of an East Coast chain that sold 72,000 pieces of pie a day.


From the National Geographic Image Collection

Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts

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